Ghatotkacha

The real hero, brave and dare to sacrifice his life for the victory of righteousness.

Ghatotkacha was the son of Bheema. He was considered to be a loyal and humble figure. He made himself available to his father at any time, all Bheema had to do was to think of him and he would appear. Also, he was the greatest example of how his son respected his mother so much. He had the ability to fly high. He was never defeated by anybody until his last day.

Ghatotkacha’s wife was Maurwi and his son was Barbarika.

In the afternoon of the eleventh day of the Kurukshetra war, Karna began to take part in the war. Being aware of how powerful and mortal Karna's weapon Konta, Krishna had to prevent the use of it on Arjun, the symbol of the truth and honesty of mankind. The Pandavas would lose if Arjun were killed. Krishna had to find a way to eradicate the Konta. Who dared to sacrifice his own life voluntarily for this? Krishna considered Ghatotkacha to be the one and only dedicated warrior to overcome the potential catastrophe.

That night Krishna summoned Ghatotkacha for a discussion. Having heard Krishna's explanation, Ghatotkacha decided to fight against Karna before the latter fought against Arjun. He understood that although the Konta weapon could be used once only, it would certainly cause loss of life. He would provoke Karna to use Konta's weapon on him. He would sacrifice his own life for the sake of Pandavas' safety and victory.

On the fourteenth day of the Kurukshetra war, Ghatotkacha fought against Karna on the battlefield. It took a long fight before Karna could finally kill Ghatotkacha with his Konta weapon.

Ghatotkacha had performed his duty perfectly as a hero.

At the time of his cremation, his mother - upon getting consent from Bheema and other Pandavas - also cremated to accompany him.

THE END OF GHATOTKACHA

o The fight between Karna and Ghatotkacha began in the middle of the night. They were bent upon killing each other. Satyaki was with Ghatotkacha. Seeing this, Duryodhana sent Dussasan to help Karna. In the meantime, a rakshas, son of Jatasura came and requested Duryodhana that he wanted to fight from his side to avenge his father’s death at the hands of Bhima. Duryodhana very gladly welcomed him and gave him all the honor and said that there was Ghatotkacha the son of Bhima. He could start his revenge against Bhima by killing his son first. The rakshas went to fight against Ghatotkacha. He was terrible fighter and well versed in the art of maya tactics. After a grueling fight Ghatotkacha was able to cut the head of his foe. He threw the head of the raksha in the chariot of Duryodhana, Then he resumed his fight against Karna. Karna was very much impressed by the fighting skill of the son of Bhima. He was quite an expert in maya tactics. He was able to frustrate many of the astras of Karna. Ghatotkacha was destroying Kauravas army at an alarming rate. He was causing such havoc that wherever he turned his face Kaurava army ran away screaming. Another rakshas name Alayudha came to Duryodhana and offered his help. He had come with a huge army. This pleased Duryodhana very much, he asked the rakshas to kill Ghatotkacha first.